The Ninja Blog

When Khabib Nurmagomedov put down Conor McGregor at UFC 229 with a fourth-round submission, he won himself another lightweight UFC title. But his post-match brawl with Dillon Danis will cost him a $2 million purse – and may cost the industry as a whole much more.
 
In a way, we saw this coming. After months of abuse by McGregor and his team outside the ring, including escalating verbal and even physical attacks, no one can blame Khabib for getting pissed. To be fair, I’m sure many of us have wanted to punch Dillon Danis for his unprofessional trash-talking antics. But fans are pissed at how things turned out, too, and they showed it by getting into fights, throwing bottles into the arena and hurtling their opinions around online after the match.

The lightweight champ's own father and coach Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov isn't happy, either. In an interview, Khabib’s father described himself as “categorically against fighting outside the octagon” and implied that his son lacks discipline. He also said he regards the incident “severely.” When he lost his temper, Khabib brought dishonor to the family he was trying to defend. 

The growth mindset is a way of approaching challenging situations without the presence of fear. My coach often has us practice this by having us flow roll with a partner, but instead of focusing on winning (which makes the match competitive), you take on the “Mind of Einstein”. The entire roll is a process of data gathering. When you run into resistance or an unexpected response from your partner it’s just more data for you to apply to grow your game.

This allows you to make mistakes and try new things without fear of failure. Allowing yourself to make mistake is extremely important for the learning process. I like to apply this same concept when competing. A simple change in mindset can allow you to never lose when competing ever again. If you approach your competition from a non-fearful perspective, where you allow that “L” to transform itself from “Loss” to a “Learn”, then you’ll never lose when competing again. You have lost nothing if you notice an opportunity to get better and nothing exposes your weaknesses better than competing.

So go out there and try something new today. When it fails, ask yourself why? Try adjusting things until it starts getting more success. 

See you on the mat!

Are there moves that are statistically better but are underrepresented in jiu-jitsu due to a cultural stigma? In Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Big Man can’t Shoot” episode of the Revisionist History Podcast, he asks this question about basketball. Specifically about shooting free throws underhanded, granny style. In the episode Gladwell interviews Rick Barry who shot underhanded. He asks Barry about the stigma of shooting granny style and asked if that bothered him. Barry repeats what his Dad had told him, “They can’t make fun of you if you’re making them.” They go on to talk about how underhanded free throws are a superior technique and are statistically more accurate, but nobody in the NBA will shoot them because they don’t want to be picked on. This got me thinking. What jiu-jitsu moves are being unfairly stigmatized despite being highly successful?

One of my training partners was recently complaining that he felt slow.

He said that usually he would be faster to avoid getting swept or submitted. He would post faster. Find his base faster. He would be better.

Now this guy is fast.This particular training partners is known to be one of the fastest guys at the gym.  Physically he is very fast. Much faster than me. Let’s call him Gonzales. But the reason Gonzales felt he was being slow wasn’t because his physical speed wasn’t up to snuff...